Mar 19, 2013

Samsung Galaxy S4, the latest Android-based flagship smartphone from the South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung, will receive no love from the some CyanogenMod collaborators, and the same applies to other modders as well.

Team Hacksung, the handful of people behind official CyanogenMod ports for Samsung’s devices, has already confirmed that there are no plans to offer support for the new device. In fact, neither of the members of the team is looking to purchase the device or develop software for it, it seems, mainly due to the various bugs that it is expected to arrive with. “There are two variants which will be a pain to maintain, [and] the bugs we have on the S3 will probably be there on S4, too (camera), and we all know Samsung ability to release sources while staying in line with mainline,” the team notes in a post on XDA-Developers. “Yes Qualcomm releases sources, but Exynos sources we had were far from [working on] actual Galaxy products. I'm pretty sure the same will happen for this one.”

Apparently, other developers feel the same, and this post on Andrew Dodd’s Google+ account confirms that. Apparently, Samsung does not provide the needed source code to enable an easier development of custom ROMs for its devices, nor does it offer direct support to those who build such software. Other mobile phone makers, on the other hand, do offer this kind of support, making it easier for those who do this out of passion to continue doing it. Undoubtedly, the lack of interest from Team Hacksung in the new Galaxy smartphone won’t affect sales too much, since only a small number of users are actually interested in tweaking the phone, as Android Central notes.

Enthusiasts will certainly find other custom ROMs to modify the software on their handsets, yet it remains to be seen whether Samsung won’t decide to get involved a bit more in the modding process of its devices as well. Moreover, the CyanogenMod Team announced in a post on Google+ that the opinions of Team Hacksung do not reflect the position of CM towards the GALAXY S 4, especially since it hasn't been released commercially as of yet. They will announce plans to support the phone or not when it becomes available next month.